The Times and the Seasons — 1 Thessalonians 4-5

0:00 So I'm going to start reading in first Thessalonians four verse 13. But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means proceed those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God.

0:45 And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Now notice that it seems there seems to be a break of thought here in the fifth chapter.

1:09 It says, but concerning the times of seasons. So there's a little break of thought and we're going to try to understand what this is. But concerning the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when we say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them. When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape.

1:50 But you, brethren, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of this night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober for those who sleep, sleep in the night and those who get drunk are drunk in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

2:21 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another just as you are doing. So in the fourth chapter, in the part that we read there, have the rapture. And so I'm just going to go over the rapture. And first of all, let's understand that the apostle Paul starts off by saying, I don't want you to be ignorant, brother.

3:01 And so they had understood something of this, but there were some parts of it they just didn't understand. And one of them was they seemed to be thinking that if a person died, they wouldn't participate in the rapture, in this calling of the Lord Jesus. And so the Apostle Paul knows, he's straightening them out. He's helping them to understand. No, that's not the way it is.

3:29 And so he says in the fifteenth verse that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by known means precede those that are asleep. And then he gives the order of this and gives the description. And I have to say that this description in one Thessalonians chapter four is perhaps the most descriptive portion in scripture about the rapture. And so we have in our chart up here, we have it like this. So the Lord's up here in heaven.

4:12 He is now because he's resurrected, right? The Lord's up here in heaven and there comes this moment, we don't know when the moment's gonna come, but we're told to be ready for it. So the Lord suddenly, the Lord himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. I I don't know what the shout is or the voice of the archangel or the trump of God. I really think it's Christ himself doing it, but but maybe it is the archangel that that...

4:43 Himself that's doing it. But whatever it is, it's a shout that is a distinguishing shout, something that can't be missed. And so here we are, we're believers in this scene and we're down here and hopefully we're living soberly as the scripture says. Hopefully we have our hearts prepared because when that shout comes, there's not gonna be any chance to prepare. And so that's part of the very wonder of it is the Lord Jesus said, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming, be ready.

5:19 And so suddenly he comes and he makes the shout and we're told in detail that the dead are going to rise first. So in that little split second when that shout comes, the first thing that happens is that the dead are taken and in some way that only God is capable of doing, that God is capable of doing. He reconstitutes their bodies, and if we're dead, our bodies. He reconstitutes them out of the dust, and and and suddenly, we can just see from everywhere and all the ground that suddenly they spring up and they just go up just like that. And flip this on, they're gone.

6:08 They're up there. Wait a minute, we're down here. Immediately after that, we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. Now, we have to understand the reality of this, that we're in this life and we're going along in our lives, and there's going to come this point where the trumpet's gonna come, and suddenly just you and me in our everyday lives, suddenly, it's gonna happen. And we're just gonna be jerked out.

6:38 Boys, it's it's gonna happen. That that you're gonna be gone. Maybe you'll be in school one day and just suddenly, come or whatever whatever the shout is. And and and we're out of there, you know. It's like...

7:28 And those that were believers would be caught away. It's a mystery. I tell you a mystery, fifty first verse, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, I don't know how to describe a twinkling of an eye. To me, it's like the flip of your thumb, it's just like an instantaneous, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, that's the trumpet we're talking about here, trumpet of the Lord, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible.

8:03 So those that they were worrying about, don't worry about it folks. If you pass away, he's going to come and pick us up. My dear mother passed away about ten years ago. She's gonna beat me to the glory. She's gonna be there.

8:18 She's even gonna beat me into the clouds. And so, so in that moment, the dead are raised incorruptible and we, that's talking about those that are alive, we shall be changed. For this corruptible, this body that we have that's capable of death, must put on incorruption, and this mortal capable of death must put on immortality, never to die again. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your sting?

9:01 O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Every sin washed away, we're given the victory over even that.

9:21 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. What a beautiful portion. What a beautiful description. So we're given significant detail about this. It's gonna happen.

9:39 Boys. It's going to happen. One day you're just going to be there and you're out of here. Shout comes. Perhaps those of you that have a loved one, just remember that loved one is going to go right in front of you.

9:54 He's going to be right up there in front of you. Now, a couple of things about this. The first thing I want us to notice that it says explicitly that the dead in Christ will rise first. It's the end of the sixteenth verse. The dead in Christ shall rise first.

10:19 Now, let's be real clear about this happening that's gonna come. It's the dead in Christ that are gonna rise first. And those that are going to come right after them are gonna be the alive in Christ. Those that are trusting in Jesus today, believers today. And so if I were trying to say, well, what is the lesson of the rapture?

10:43 And I could give you a couple of good ones right off, but the very first one is, you do want to be ready. You do want to be ready, and the way that you get ready for this rapture is to trust in Jesus Christ as your savior. And we just like to look around to each of you in this room and ask this simple little question, have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your savior? Are you trusting in him? Because you can't get into heaven unless you're one of his children.

11:13 That's necessary. And when this rapture occurs, it's gonna be those that are in Christ that are caught up into heaven. Are you ready? Are you ready for that? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ?

11:27 Now there's another lesson, and that lesson is for those that already have trusted in Jesus Christ. And there's a verse, I'm sorry I don't have the reference right with me, says, that speaks about, so that we won't be ashamed before Him at His coming. And there is such a thing as our being so sleepy, so distracted in this life, that when He comes, we're not expecting it, we're not ready for it. And oh, my friends, we don't want to be there. It's not that we'll be left behind, but oh, we don't want to have to get up in heaven and say, what's going on here?

12:03 You know, how do I get up here? We wanna be ready for that time. We wanna be ready for the time that the Lord Jesus says, come. And that's part of the whole lesson of this. Okay, so now we have the rapture.

12:53 For when we say peace and safety, then sudden destruction. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. Interesting, isn't it? Now, this portion in its very feelings of it, will be tasty feely just for a moment. And the very feelings of it, it has a different feeling to it.

13:27 In the previous one, it was one of joy, caught up to be with the Lord, comforting one another with the prospect of it. But when you get over here, there's something different that's going on and it's something that isn't very it isn't very sweet in its flavor to these people that are going to be caught by it. So let's try to understand what it is. So it starts out in the first verse saying, but concerning the times and seasons, brethren, I have no need that I should write to you. You have no need that I should write to you.

13:59 So what is this times and seasons? Well, believe that the idea is that he's gonna give an overview, like he's gonna give an overview of what's gonna happen in the future. And when you have this overview, you're going to be able to understand and put things into perspective with one another. And so I call this chart the times and the seasons, and maybe a time would be a specific event that would occur while seasons would be those times in between these magnificent events and so there are times and seasons. Now as I look at this chart, I see three definite times.

14:47 I don't have a, I'm not as high-tech as Jim, I don't have one of those little red pointer things. What it means is I forgot to get one. Okay, so the rapture here is one of them. The Lord returns with the redeemed, which I associate more with the day of the Lord here. And then the great white throne, three events across here, but then there are seasons in between them.

15:11 Right now we live in the day of grace ever since the Lord Jesus came down here and died and rose again. The gospel of the grace of God is offered freely to mankind, has been preached, and yet there's a time when the Lord is going to come and He's going to take every believer to be with them and then something different is going to happen, isn't it? And so we have the rapture occurring here and then after that, there's going to be a time, a season, a seven year season where there's gonna be great tribulation in this world. I had a book here that Roger returned to me. He had borrowed it, he returned it to me today and I was looking at it with some interest because I read this book some time ago.

16:02 The name of the book is The Mark of the Beast and it's one of those novels that try to picture what it's like in that terrible tribulation period. And I believe it stirs all of our imagination to somehow try to picture what will it be like? What will it be like when the Lord brings these great troubles upon the earth against those that are in rebellion against him. So, the unbelievers that were left over from the rapture, they're the ones that go through the tribulation. And it's a terrible time when God brings great judgments on the world.

16:43 And I was trying to think ahead of time. So what would I say is the great lesson of the tribulation? And this is what I'd say the great lesson of the tribulation is, you don't want to be there. You don't want to be there. That's the great lesson of the tribulation because if you haven't trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of the rapture, where are you going to be?

17:11 You're gonna be in that terrible tribulation. Well, the clear solution to that? Well, it's to trust in Jesus Christ today to be ready for that time when he comes so that you're not left for the tribulation. Now, the end of the tribulation, the Lord Jesus will come back and that's what we're talking about at the beginning of this chapter. And it uses this expression in the second verse, For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

18:47 Understand that day of the Lord is not a day day, it's a season of time, and it's considered the day of the Lord from then on. Okay, so the Lord has taken over. Okay, so I'm going to use it explicitly here from the second verse to be referring to the time that the Lord Jesus returns and takes over at the end of the tribulation. And that time, we're told here, comes as a thief in the night. Now, in your own mind, I had I had a little bit of trouble with this expression, comparing the Lord Jesus to a...

19:30 Or... Yeah. Comparing the Lord Jesus to a thief in the night. And I I I I said that's a little strange to me. I don't think of the Lord as a thief.

19:38 And so I'm struggling to try to understand how this works. And so I thought, well, okay, so you have to get it in a certain context, and then it becomes very clear. So if the Lord Jesus created this world, and he did, then who owns this world? Who owns my very life if he created me? And he does, doesn't he?

20:02 And so, if we were to look at our lives appropriately, we would say that each one of us would say that my life is simply something that's given to me and I am a steward of something that doesn't actually belong to me. Yes, I'm the one that has to make the decisions, but I don't really own it. I really don't own this life. He owns this life. He's Lord.

20:30 He owns this life and I'm responsible before him on how I, what the decisions I make in this life. But now, if you're one of these unbelievers and you don't believe what I just told you there, and as far as you're concerned, this is my life and I will make the choice on how I'm gonna live my life. And indeed, everyone will make that choice, but say, this is my life. I'm gonna make my decisions. And it comes a point where they find out that they were wrong, that that life really did belong to God and that they were abusing the stewardship that was given to them.

21:09 And so what is their impression? Their impression is that a thief has come that's taking away from me something that belonged to me, but they're wrong, aren't they? He may come to them as a thief, but oh, if they had just come to him instead to make him their Lord and Savior, he wouldn't have been a thief to them anymore, he would have been a Lord. Now, again, I'm gonna say I take it that the actual expression as it's used here in context is probably referring to when the Lord returns with his redeemed right here, the day of the Lord. And even though in scripture, it does have a broader context.

21:53 So here it says in the third verse, When they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. Now, in their minds, they own this planet, their country, wherever, their own lives, and they're going to do everything it takes for peace and safety. And they think that they're making headway in that direction, but suddenly, suddenly some event occurs, we're going to say it's the day of the Lord, some event occurs when God steps in and they find out that their peace and safety is nothing, that they could not escape the hand of God in their lives. And so sudden destruction comes upon them. Now, wanna make sure that we understand this little fact.

23:53 And so the Lord Jesus comes down and there's great judgment that occurs at that moment. It's sudden destruction is what it's called here. When they say peace and safety, that's the unbelievers are saying that, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, they shall not escape. I thought this was rather an interesting metaphor here, the metaphor of the pregnant woman and for those of us who have wives, and of course for the wives themselves too, that when they've been in that delivery room and I suppose you get the point where the labors, the heavy labor suddenly starts and sometimes a woman's reaction is, this is absolutely true, can say it wasn't true of my wife, but sometimes it's actually true the woman says, you know what, I think I don't want to go through this. Think that let's cancel this all out.

25:05 Let's not go ahead with this. But it's not gonna happen, is it? Like it says here, sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. I thought it was rather graphic metaphor of the fact that it was an inescapable happening, they, there was no, no way that they could escape from what was coming upon them. Now, the next verse, the fourth verse, kind of, it kind of jumps.

25:47 So up up to the the the second and third verses, you you see the unbelieving there and the judgment of God's coming and and woah. And and then suddenly he stops a minute as... And we could take this this fourth verse to be written to us. Okay? But you, brethren, are not in darkness that this day should overtake you as a thief.

26:11 Am I afraid that I will be there when that judgment strikes? And the answer is no. I'm not afraid because God has revealed to us that we're going to be caught up ahead of time. And so I think it's quite a verse of comfort. But you, brethren, are not in darkness that this day should overtake you as a thief.

26:31 You are all the sons of light and the sons of day. That's because they're children of God. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, do not let us sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep in the night and those who get drunk, get drunk in the night.

26:50 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. So, it's an important point that we would come in a message that says, now, we've just heard of marvelous truths of God that have come out of the scripture that give us some sense of what's gonna happen in the future, and what should be the effect upon us? How should it affect us? So this is a big therefore. So he says here, You are all the sons of light and sons of day.

27:37 We are not of the night or of darkness. Okay, so listen, he's saying this part of judgment, that's not part that you'll have to experience, but still you're capable of sleep and frankly, you're capable of drunkenness. But that isn't what you should be like. Matter of fact, that's the way, that's what you would expect of those that are in darkness. Those that know the Lord, that's what you expect of them.

28:05 That's not what you expect of somebody that's walking in the light. It's those that are in the night that you expect that out of. Those that are in the light, you expect them to be walking in the light. Now, I could understand the metaphor of sleep, that in the metaphor of sleep, you and I are looked at as, or they are looked at specifically and you and I could be looked at as being asleep. The exhortation is to believers that let us not sleep.

28:36 Don't let us be like that. It doesn't mean you can't go to sleep at night. That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about sleep is like a state of unconsciousness, right? You're in a state where you don't know what's going on around you.

28:54 And so spiritually, he's saying, you don't wanna be asleep. You don't wanna be asleep. You wanna be quite aware of what's going on, making your proper preparations for it, keeping it in mind. You don't wanna be unconscious about it. And oh, brother, shouldn't that be true of us, we're looking ahead and seeing this marvelous truth that's been revealed to us, that we're gonna be caught away.

29:52 Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him. Remember the changed bodies that it talked about? We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

30:14 We'll be in his presence, brethren, and it will make all the difference. And if we can keep in our minds the fact that he is coming again, it's gonna happen, then it's gonna make such a difference to us in our lives. And I thought of the drunkenness. Drunkenness is a bit different than sleep, isn't it? Drunkenness is is caused by a...

30:35 Sleep is almost caused by a non choice on our part. We just drift off into unconsciousness. But drunkenness is a choice on our part, a choice that we see in the real world, the choice is to drink that which intoxicates because of the effect that it has upon you. And what is that effect? Well, it's sort of an unreality.

31:04 It's something that you're left without. I like to think, I think this may be the best way to look at it. It's like you've imbibed something that makes it so that you can't walk in a straight line. So what do you see when you see a person that's intoxicated? Truly, I mean, I understand there's all levels of it, but I'm talking about the guy that's really got himself intoxicated.

31:31 And you can see him maybe walking down the sidewalk of the city where he are, and you look at him, strange, what is, and then they say, the person is stumbling this way and that way, and they just can't walk a straight line. Isn't that what happens when we, now I believe, first of all, that this is not talking about physical drunkenness. That's not what it's talking about. I believe this is talking about spiritual drunkenness. That is, when we get so full of the things of this world that we can't walk a straight line.

32:09 We can't live our lives in moral conformity to what God has shown us in the Bible. And, oh friends, the exhortation to the believer today is this, be sober, be sober, be awake, be sober, pay attention to your life, live your lives as you ought to before God, as he's instructed us. Go to the ninth verse. God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing.

32:58 So in this portion, it immediately brings out the idea that God's will for us isn't that wrath of his. Don't be worrying about that. God's will for us was that we would obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, and it brings us back to the death of the Lord Jesus, the realization of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross. That's what God's will is for us. And what is the conclusion?

33:32 That whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. So basically, he's saying, God has this for us, salvation. And once we have that salvation, guess what? Whether we wake or sleep, we're going to be together with him. I think it's a pointer back to the last chapter saying, hey, you're not going to be in this judgment here.

33:56 Whether you wake or sleep, whether you pass, whether you're alive when the Lord Jesus comes, or whether you've fallen asleep in death when the Lord Jesus comes, you'll be caught up with Him and we're back to that glorious moment, aren't we, of the rapture where He gives the shout. Real. You know, I'm seeking myself to enter more and more into it. I've heard some people that say, they get up in the morning and they say, Lord, will it be today? And I must say that I don't do that.

34:28 But I think I should start doing that. I think that's a good thing. I think that's a good instruction. The Lord help us all to daily remember He's coming. He's coming.

34:51 And I tried to look at it like this, okay, here's therefore, here's what God, here's God's expectation that this would be the consequence in our life, this is how we would be stirred up. And so he gives like, I've got eight different practical ways or steps, maybe I should say, to comforting each other and edifying one another. Now, the first one I've kind of summarized from verses twelve and thirteen. We urge you, brethren, to recognize those that labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And so I just simply summarized it, recognize and support your leaders because our effort is to comfort each other and edify one another.

35:50 And this will lead in that direction of being able to walk together in a way that we're comforted and we're built up in the Lord. And the next thing that I have here is at the bottom of the thirteenth verse, be at peace among yourselves, and that's a pretty necessary exhortation for any church, I think, because we're human beings and we all of us have the flesh and we're, it's pretty easy for us to get, have wrong feelings towards one another, but God help us. Let's listen to this exhortation, be at peace with one another. And so we need to seek to overcome those feelings that we have and to truly love our brethren. Warn those that are unruly.

36:39 So do we do any favor if there's someone that's going on in a way that's really dishonoring to the Lord? We're talking about something that's really dishonoring to the Lord. Do we do them any favor to say nothing to them? It says, Warn the unruly. How are they going to stop it if we don't go to them?

36:57 I remember in the sixth chapter of Galatians, it speaks about the elders going and correcting somebody and they were told, they're told in there, this is the attitude the elders are told to take. Says, I had it in my mind and it's already, this is Galatians chapter six, and it says, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. So they're being unruly, the lesson is very clear that we are certainly capable of what they're doing, and so God help us. God help us that we would try to help them, but we would do it with a spirit of gentleness. The next two, I think, go together.

37:52 Comfort the faint hearted and uphold the weak. Those those that are struggling in their spiritual lives and they're in need of encouragement and help and strengthening, uphold the weak, strengthening them. What can we do, brother, to strengthen others? Perhaps we go to them and spend time with them try to bring the Lord before them and all of His love and the wonderful fact, as we have it already today, that He's coming again. He's going to be here soon, so this is not going to last forever.

38:29 The next one is be patient with all. That's pretty important, isn't it? It's pretty hard sometimes. The Lord help us that instead of taking offense, hopefully my wife won't mind me saying this, but my wife has a very gracious way in our dealings with each other, and I'm more quick to say a word that I regret afterwards, but she would come to me a gracious way and she would say something like this, Don, do you understand how I feel when you say something like that? I feel like maybe you don't love me or something like that.

39:15 And so she would graciously and patiently talk to me how it does increase each of our patients when this goes. Okay. And then the next one is do not render evil for evil to anyone and pursue what is good for yourselves and for all. And I will say this, I will say this that if you were to go to the last five or six verses Romans 12, and I don't have the time to spend on it, my time is out here, but if you would go to those, would find a very good exhortation there on returning good for evil, a really blessed one. Now, I'm going to try to jump through, in the next three minutes, try to jump through these verses.

40:31 Well, it's that progressive, well, of all, I would say perhaps the most wonderful point of sanctification is when we're actually saved. Our sins are washed away and we're set apart as being God's children. But there is a part of sanctification that is a practical thing in our lives as we more and more enter into the love of the Lord and so forth, our lives are conformed to Him. We become more like our wonderful Savior. So that's the objective of sanctification practically.

41:06 First step is rejoice always. Boy, that's a good one, isn't it? Rejoice always and a difficult one oftentimes to find ourselves rejoicing. And if we're down and we all are occasionally, if we're down, what will bring us back up? Well, let's turn our thoughts to the Lord Jesus, try to remember what He endured for us and how much He loves us.

41:29 And then when we think of others, can rejoice in the Lord and treat them appropriately. The next one is pray without ceasing. What a wonderful exhortation that we would spend more time in prayer. But I think this is kind of remarkable because it says pray without ceasing. And we might say, what?

41:52 You can't pray without ceasing. In one sense, we would understand that, well, that would be difficult, wouldn't it? So I believe what the real thought here is that we would be in a very attitude of prayer, that the Lord, it's sort of like an attitude of dependence on the Lord. Lord, as Apostle Paul said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Lord, what do you want me to do now?

42:16 I want to be conformed to you. May we all be able to be in the spirit of, I know that sometimes I am, but oh, that I might always be that way. The Lord help us to be that way. A spirit of prayer. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

42:36 Notice that it pauses right on this particular one to say, this is the will of God. And I think that's so important for us to realize that thanksgiving is our precious portion as Christians and God would have us to be that way. And if we're full of Thanksgiving, we're going to have the appropriate spirit in our lives. I'm gonna put the next two together. Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies.

43:03 Prophecies. And the third one too, test all things, hold fast what is good. Each believer has the indwelling Holy Spirit and we're exhorted not to quench the spirit. The spirit of God is within us and is nudging us along in our pathway, and he's saying here, don't do that which would quench the spirit, which keep the spirit, you know, if we find that sometimes we do have a nudging to do something and we say, I can't do that, or whatever. Or another way to quench the spirit is when there's sin in our lives, Oh, what a quenching of the spirit that is.

43:46 And we've all been there, haven't we? Do not despise prophecy signs. That I take not to be speaking of prophecy like of future events, but more the idea of prophecy as taking the word of God and bringing it before us. And so, we find that many of our brethren are good about taking the Bible and reading something to us and applying it to our lives, and we should not despise such prophesying. And if we do have that, then the next question would be, test all things, hold fast what is good.

44:31 Test all things, hold fast what is good. How would you test a prophecy? How would you do that? Well, no doubt it's through the word of God that you test it so that you look in the word of God and you see if what's being told you is in keeping with what God says in the scripture. Test all things, hold fast what is good.

44:52 What meets the test of the word of God, hold it fast. I had particularly appreciated in the book of Acts where Apostle Paul finally arrived at city of Berea and he preached to them, and this is what the Bible says. I'm quoting from the old King James just because that's what I memorized from. It says, Now the men of Berea were more noble than the men of Thessalonica, because they searched the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Wow, that's what we're talking about, isn't it?

46:21 And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, thank you for this portion of scripture. We pray that you would use it to our own blessing in our souls, and we're so blessed, Lord, that you revealed so much to us in the scriptures.

46:43 Keep us in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.